In the 1960’s when westerns like Bonanza and Rawhide began to dip, spy shows such as The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Saint and Mission: Impossible began to pop up, partly because of the popularity of the James Bond franchise which was taking off around the same time. Well, I wasn’t around yet for those, but I do remember MacGyver, Wiseguy and The Equalizer from the late 80’s and staying up late on school nights to watch them.

It seems the interest in spies has survived not only the Cold War and Gulf War but continues today with surveillance at its highest than at any other time in history and with the threat of terrorism, we’re told, always nearby. Burn Notice, however, leaves the terrorism to 24 and fooling-no-one disguises to Alias and takes its cue from a different angle.

Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan), if you’re not familiar with the show so far, is a blacklisted former spy who’s desperate to get his identity back and find out who “burned” him. With the help of his trigger-happy ex-girlfriend, Fi (Gabrielle Anwar), former military intelligence officer Sam (Bruce Campbell) and his mom, Maddie (Sharon Gless), they form an unlicensed private investigation team.

Season 3 picks up with Michael completely free from interference by the organisation that burned him, but now he’s under investigation by the police. As he tries to get back into the CIA, he’s also taking on some dangerous assignments, most notably with Mason Gilroy (Chris Vance), a charming but deadly psychopath. Fi is also getting herself into some tricky situations when she agrees to go undercover in a kidnapping case.

Elsewhere, Sam lays down an ultimatum for Michael in order to stop him going off on his one-man missions and as the episodes work their way toward the always-inevitable cliffhanger, its Maddie who really leaves a lasting impression, despite the show looking as if it’s taking a few tips from the Prison Break set-up.

As a series, Burn Notice comes up with a few tricks and treats although it’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but they’re nice enough reminders of past shows to keep us entertained. It will be interesting to see where the show goes from here, but I really feel it needs to come into its own. Not an easy task considering the past 60 years have had so many long running spy shows, although I’m confident it will be a while before Burn Notice is burnt out.

EPISODES:

Friends and Family

Question and Answer

End Run

Fearless Leader

Signals and Codes

The Hunter

Shot in the Dark

Friends Like These

Long Way Back

A Dark Road

Friendly Fire

Noble Causes

Enemies Closer

Partners in Crime

Good Intentions

Devil You Know

The rapport between the show’s main actors, Jeffrey Donovan, Bruce Campbell, Gabrielle Anwar and Sharon Gless, gives it nice touch and it’s always a pleasure to see Michael on the receiving end of the arguments he gets himself into with his friends and mother. There’s a sense of homeliness and familiarity to Burn Notice, mainly down to the fact it builds on what we’ve seen over the past 60 years and coming across as a hybrid of the short lived 90s show Moon Over Miami and MacGyver.

The mix of action and humour works well, even when Sam does an impression of Horatio from C.S.I. Miami but what it’s lacking is an edge, or something to help bring the show into its own. It might be time to kill off a main character or introduce a new team member to shake things up a bit, but we’ll wait and see where Season 4 takes us.

Patrick Samuel

The founder of Static Mass Emporium and one of its Editors in Chief is an emerging artist with a philosophy degree, working primarily with pastels and graphite pencils, but he also enjoys experimenting with water colours, acrylics, glass and oil paints.

Being on the autistic spectrum with Asperger’s Syndrome, he is stimulated by bold, contrasting colours, intricate details, multiple textures, and varying shades of light and dark. Patrick's work extends to sound and video, and when not drawing or painting, he can be found working on projects he shares online with his followers.

Patrick returned to drawing and painting after a prolonged break in December 2016 as part of his daily art therapy, and is now making the transition to being a full-time artist. As a spokesperson for autism awareness, he also gives talks and presentations on the benefits of creative therapy.

Static Mass is where he lives his passion for film and writing about it. A fan of film classics, documentaries and science fiction, Patrick prefers films with an impeccable way of storytelling that reflect on the human condition.

Jesse’s Lost Journal was conceived as my subtext writings while making Nightmare on Elm Street 2. I stay true to the film until late in the game and then bear off in a new direction, bringing Jesse up to date and letting you see he is quite alive and doing just fine...